The Friendly Ghost Pilot in the Attic
by Meon
Summary: Martin Crieff is not just like a ghost living in the attic of a student shared home. If he is really a ghost, he is their house ghost.
1. House Ghost

Authors Note: Because it is my headcanon that Martin gets along greatly with the Students at the shared house.

Martin didn't really mind that he lived in the attic of a house that was only inhabited by students. In fact, he actually liked it. He had lied a bit about the fact that he never spoke to one of them. It was true, that he didn't start conversations and kept his contact with the students as little as possible. But that didn't keep the youngsters adopting him as some kind of house-mascot. "The friendly ghost in the attic", that was how he had described his place in the house to Carolyn. What he hadn't said was that the students weren't afraid of ghosts. In fact, they kind of liked him – ...err them.

Seeing these young people moving into the house, studying, making friendships and working on relationships and leaving three years later wasn't too bad. Even if he wasn't their professor, their teacher, their brother or their parent, Martin couldn't help but feel a bit proud.

The students liked him because he was friendly and completely awkward, a personality treat they inherited themselves, maybe from the former student generation. Also, even though Martin didn't get paid for his job, he still had achieved his life-long dream; something all of them wanted but still had to manage in their lives.

It was a friendly coexistence, the attic-ghost airdot captain and the agricultural college students, enjoying a beer and talking about life. With a little more magic, one of them joked, they could assign to become a Hogwarts house.


	2. After Ottery St Mary

Authors note: If this gets any readers, I might write several chapters / episode epilogues. They won't come in a certain order, though.

**After Ottery St. Mary **

"Hey Skip, what happened to you?"

Martin couldn't help but slightly grin at the name. About two weeks ago, Melody had asked him how pilots and cabin crew addressed each other and after a few seconds – after he had played with the idea of lying to her – he had answered honestly. MJN wasn't like other airlines and they kept calling each other by their first names, apart from Arthur obviously, who kept calling him "Skipper".

This had lead to Martin's new nickname with the students. He didn't mind, though, it made him feel as if he belonged to them, since the only other people apart from themselves they gave nicknames to were the professors. And those nicknames weren't as friendly as "Skip".

Martin hobbled over to the little stone wall that was build around the shared house, shielding a slightly brown patch of grass from the people who walked by on the pavement. Using the crutches they gave him at Fitton Hospital, he let himself fall on the seat next to Phillip who had called out to him and stretched out his leg. "I had a little accident, don't worry, it wasn't with the plane".

Two of Phillips friends who had seated themselves on the wall as well waved as a greeting and one handed Martin a bottle of lemonade. Long time ago the students had decided in secret, that Martin was even more miserable than then when it came to money or diversified meals and that they had to help him out from time to time. So it frequently happened that Martin got handed something when they sat together outside with a snack, or that one of them knocked at his attic door to give him "leftovers" because they "made too much to eat all of that". Martin knew what their real reasons where but was too touched to actually say something about it. Also it was a bit embarrassing that the only adult in the whole damn house had to be fed by students who were worried about his health.

"So, what happened, then?" Shirley, a first-year student asked, looking up from the books she had spread on her lap.

The tips of Martin's ears reddened slightly and he heard Mike, who had lived right under Martin's attic for the last two years, snort.

"Oh I know what happened alright; he somehow managed to almost break his ankle when he tried to fix the lightning on the upper floor."

"What? But that thing has been broken for ages. I always need a torch when I come home at night… which is sometimes a bit tricky when you've been on a party, you know."

"I know, I guess that's why Martin tried to fix it."

"Wow." There was a short pause. "I didn't know you could do that, Skip."

Shirley sounded so impressed that Martin had to cough and look away. Nobody in his family had ever been impressed by something Martin did, the only one who was constantly impressed by him was Arthur and Arthur could be impressed by somebody who told him that the earth was rotating.

"Looks like he is indeed able to. What he wasn't able to do, though, was balancing on a plastic bucket because he didn't have a stepladder. You could've just asked, you know."

Martin mumbled a reply. He didn't ask for a stepladder because he didn't want to know the students that he had fixed the lights. Since he couldn't get himself to thank them proper for taking care of his feeding, this could have been the next best thing. He even had lied to Douglas and Arthur about how he really managed to twist his ankle. One of the few times where he almost was acting as the son his father always wanted – the one who was able to fix things instead of failing a hopeless exam over and over – and he messed it up. Well obviously, he was Martin Crieff, the champion in messing up his life.

Mike just smirked when he saw Martin going red and flustered about the reply.

"Anyway, he obviously fell off the stupid bucket and his foot hit the floor kinda weird-ish, so he ended up twisting his ankle. I called an ambulance because he wanted to run off to do some dumb van job."

"What, with a twisted ankle?"

"Yup."

"Oh Martin!" Phillip and Shirley both looked at him incredulous.

"It was a job, okay? I did get paid for it kind of a nice amount, the first time in weeks that somebody was ready to pay a bit more and of course, it wasn't only my day off but also a good job was on my list and I just _had_ to break my ankle."

"Twist it, I bet it's not that bad", Phillip said and patted Martin on the back.

"It isn't. But it still keeps me from doing my job – both of my jobs – properly", Martin sighed.

"Well, in that case", Shirley said closing her book, "I'd recommend the student's way of dealing with shitty situations."

Martin looked up and studied the three young people sitting next to him.

"Getting drunk?"

The grins that spread on the faces of the young people were enough of an answer.


	3. After Douz

**After Douz**

When he returns home the students are huddled together in the kitchen around a great variety of meat and cheese. When he tries to sneak past them he is stopped by loud protests and eventually dragged into the kitchen to sit down. He really hates himself because of it but he never refuses a free meal. Well, maybe apart from those Arthur is cooking. The memory makes him shiver and he focuses instead on the conversation. Long ago he had decided that trying to find out the occasion for a little party with nice food if one goes on because the students always find something to celebrate and if it is the birthday of a pet rat. That wasn't even exaggerated. The pet rat was called Milo and lived in Melody's room and they had found out that Milo was really fond of pizza. Which was great he supposed, since it was the rat's birthday.

And now they were telling stories about said rat, because apparently it escaped two days earlier and scared Mike's aunt, or it might have been his second-grade cousin, who now sent him messages every day and proposed he should go and get somebody from pest control. Melody promised Mike, that if he ever even thought about that option, she would refuse to speak to him for the rest of his life. Mike, rather fond of Melody, preferred to answer his aunt – or cousin, Martin didn't really pay attention because the meal was quite rich and quite delicious – that the rat had left them.

Half an hour later, Martin was fed and drowsy, they asked him if there were any news from MJN air. Martin, in the mood for some fun told them the whole story. How they got stuck in Douz, everything about the Sahara desert and the feeling of being stuck in it in a metal tube without air conditioning, the cricket team and their – to be honest – ingenious plan they finally came up with to get away. Martin was thrilled when he made the others laugh so hard they pounded on the table. It had been the first time he had actually worked together with Douglas and every one of them had finally treated him like a captain. The students didn't really notice that, of course, but he made them laugh and that was a great moment for Martin who had to admit he loved being the centre of attention, even if it was the attention of agricultural students.

When he came to the part with the photograph Arthur took, voices on the table became louder and demanded to see the picture. Eventually overruled, he used Phillip's computer to mail Arthur asking for the picture. When it finally appeared on the screen, the howls of laughter became so loud, that Milo hid himself in Melody's sweater.


End file.
